Cancer continues to be a leading cause of death with over 1.6 million new cases of cancer being diagnosed in 2012 and over 500,000 people dying from cancer in the United States alone in 2012. For example, in the United States, breast cancer affects over 250,000 women every year, and represents the most common form of cancer in females. Indeed, it has been found that 1 out of every 8 women in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime and that almost 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year.
Despite efforts to improve treatment and detection of cancer, cancer survival has still not improved significantly over the past two decades for a number of cancer types due, at least in part, to the numerous subtypes of certain cancers and due to the various mechanisms responsible for the development of those cancer subtypes. In this regard, future therapies for cancer will likely be based on a combination of diagnostic and prognostic indicators or biomarkers. The identification of such biomarkers suitable for early diagnosis and detection of cancer holds great promise in not only allowing for a more comprehensive screening of populations, but also in selecting an appropriate treatment that is directed specifically toward a particular cancer subtype or its respective mechanism of action.